Last Guy to the Party to Use LR Sharpening?

[NorthernFocus]

I never use sharpening in LR. At all. Even for initial capture sharpening I keep it set to zero because I've always found it makes noise worse. And when you use the selective masking tools you lose the other settings in the "details" panel(radius etc.). Consequently I do all of my sharpening in other software that has more/better control. Or at least that I knew how to control better.

So a couple of days ago I was reading something about using the ALT key in conjunction with the sliders in the details panel to show the effects in the luminance channel. Wow. It's quite a powerful tool. Am I the last person on the planet to figure this out?

[Manfred M]

Depressing the <Alt> key also show areas where shadow detail is crushed when using the Blacks or Shadows slider and clipped highlights in the Exposure, White or Highlights slider. It also works with the Dehaze slider.

As you have noted it also works with the Luminance in Noise Reduction and Amount slider in Sharpening.

As I rarely use Lightroom, I assume that the functionality is identical to Camera Raw including Photoshop's Camera Raw Filter.

[DanK]

It’s evolved into a powerful tool, IMHO. I use it quite a bit. The alt-key function is also very helpful, I find.

BTW, since you mentioned noise, LR’s NR has also become quite sophisticated.


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[NorthernFocus]

I use the stand alone version of LR6 so not sure how much of the functionality is the same as the subscription copy. One thing I don't get is the dehaze too. I do have the plug-in version of it that is theoretically the same. The ALT functionality is their on highlights, shadows, etc. I am going to re-visit the NR. I've read/heard from multiple places that it is pretty good. On high ISO images NR is one of my first editing steps after basic WB/light/color.

[Shadowman]

Printing Tutorials

The third video in post #1, linked above; addresses the sharpening/noise scenario you referred to, it works for most images and the remainder of the thread covers a bit about LR in general. I used LR exclusively for awhile as my first-in software tool, but at other times I'll use Elements. LR works well when I need to correct for CA, for soft proofing, and a few other useful tools. For me it was always about correcting for noise and I prefer using Nik for noise reduction but if LR or Elements can handle the noise I'll go there first.

[DanK]

If you have a workflow like mine, in which I prefer to do what I can in a in parametric editor before going to a pixel editor, and if LR is your parametric editor, there are some advantages to doing NR in LR. First, it's nondestructive, making it easy to dial back or increase the amount. Second, as has been discussed (and demonstrated) here in the past, the order in which LR applies the edits to render the final image is not determined by the order in which you apply them. This removes the usual concern that you apply NR early in the flow so as not to sharpen noise.

The downside the flexibility of the current LR noise reduction is that it comes at the cost of some complexity: 6 sliders rather than 1. If you aren't familiar with these, a good place to start might be this posting by Tim Grey: http://asktimgrey.com/2018/02/13/noi...n-refinements/.

[NorthernFocus]

John, thanks for the links to the thread/video. I watched a few minutes so far and will complete it when I have time. Didn't yet make it to the discussion on NR.

Dan, thanks for the link to the Tim Grey post. I need to dig up a really noisy/high ISO image and do some testing with it in LR.

It sounds like we all independently discovered what Versace refers to as "multiplication" of artifacts. For years I did exactly what he promotes in the video. I used Nikon software for basic adjustments then exported a tiff image for editing in PSE. Also since PSE is an 8-bit editor the effects of cumulative/multiplied artifacts are even more pronounced which provided that learning opportunity.

No question that a different workflow can be used for screen display vs what it best for printing. I have no intention of changing my workflow for images that I'm developing for print. Which includes using specialty software for NR. But it will be nice to use LR more heavily to simplify my workflow for "every day" image processing.